


tumbleweed

by blushymika



Series: Tender Ash [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood and Injury, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22516855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blushymika/pseuds/blushymika
Summary: Valentine learns how stubborn and loving his two favourite people can be.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: Tender Ash [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1383427
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	tumbleweed

**Author's Note:**

> i keep getting distracted from writing because of university and, well, u get the gist!! i love these three so much though they are my emotional support characters...have some hurt/comfort to get through ur day because it's definitely helping me get through mine.

At the time, Valentine doesn’t think much about what happened. He’s always been reckless, even more now than when he was a child. 

Ever since the incident, he’s felt like a tumbleweed. He’s constantly swept up by the current, not knowing where he’s going, but hoping that eventually he’ll find something or someone that will convince him that life is wonderful and not something he’s stuck with.

With how he is right now, his world consists of rushing headfirst into danger and shedding more blood and breaking more ribs than necessary.

He’s reckless, Sage scolds him, and it’s going to be the death of him one day. Although it’s not like Valentine wants to die. It’s just that his eyes are heavy, a perfect reflection of the burden he carries on his back. He’s tired, _so_ tired and, alongside his lack of motivation to get on with his life, he has a crippling amount of guilt that eats away at his stomach on a daily basis.

He wants to hope though that something will come along some day.

One day, Valentine wishes, he’ll be more careful and he’ll wake up without hoping for something better because he’ll have everything he’s ever wanted.

Fortunately, he’s been making progress. As he’s learned from a drunken stranger who somehow noticed the loneliness in his heart, humans are social beings. In order to become truly happy, Valentine has to form bonds with those around him.

Whether they be platonic or romantic—the man chuckled at the latter—everyone needs some sort of relationship in their life. Valentine visibly deflated. To him, talking has always been easy. He’s been charming people all his life. Forming friendships or relationships, on the other hand, is a whole other story. 

At the mere age of twelve, he cut off the only person who loved him and needed him. In his defence, being there for his brother came at a price and Valentine couldn’t pay it. It was far too expensive. Where would a child find that kind of money?

Now, as he rests his head on Sage’s shoulder, Valentine is happy to say that he is in luck’s favour. After everything that has happened, he has made so much progress. Surviving as a child on the streets, making friends as an emotionally unavailable trainwreck, and dating Sage as the man he is today have never been things he ever dreamt of achieving. 

He leaves a kiss on Sage’s neck before he smiles a grin as bright as a dying star.

“Stop it, Val. You’re bleeding, remember?”

Valentine shakes his head. “Can’t even feel it,” he lies through his teeth. “Doesn’t even hurt.”

He hears Sage sigh and he smiles even more. 

“That’s what you always say,” Sage replies, fumbling with the medical kit. “If you keep acting carelessly it’s going to hurt so much that even you’ll admit it one day.”

“Such is life,” he says. “You’ll be there to help me though, right?”

“Of course,” Sage answers before he hesitates. “But what if I’m not?”

Valentine furrows his brows. “Why wouldn’t you be?”

“Unfortunate circumstances?”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“While everything happens to you,” Sage mumbles. “If you were only a little more careful—”

“I know,” Valentine interrupts, raising his hands to cup Sage’s face. “I know you worry because, well, you worry about everything. I’m sorry, it happens sometimes. I don’t mean to make you worry or make you sad, really.”

“But it’s not even just about this one time,” Sage argues with his lip quivering. “You aren’t protecting yourself again, Val, and we’ve all noticed. It doesn’t worry just me. It worries all of us.”

Valentine studies Sage for a moment, trying to grasp at whatever he can to wipe the frown off his face. The only thought that comes to mind is familiar, and he hopes it will provide some sort of relief. It’s warm and comfortable at least, so Valentine takes a chance and leans forward to catch Sage’s lips in a kiss.

They kiss for awhile with their chests touching and their faces pink. Words have always been difficult for the both of them. To most people, everything that comes out of Sage’s mouth seems annoying and overbearing, but it truly does come from a place of love.

Valentine knows that his boyfriend is overprotective because, simply, he’s lost too much to be careless and risk losing everything again.

Sage, for everyone else’s sake, has had to be the adult ever since he was a child. 

He’s responsible and reliable, but only because he has to be, and Valentine hates that.

Occasionally, he’ll poke Sage’s side while they kiss just to hear him laugh. It’s a reminder—one he needs frequently—that he’s allowed to relax, allowed to let go every once in awhile.

He knows what Sage wants to tell him, but is deciding to leave it unsaid and that’s fine. He can instead feel it in the way that Sage kisses him with sureness and the way his fingers run through Valentine’s hair.

The confession is said without words, and Valentine still hears him loud and clear.

 _I don’t want to lose you_.

And, truthfully, Valentine doesn’t want to lose him either. His perspective on life, however, makes his relationships with Sage and his friends complicated.

Valentine thought he wouldn’t have this problem anymore. He has a boyfriend now. He has friends. He wants to ask the stranger he met in the tavern, “Why isn’t this how I imagined it to be? Why do I still feel like I want to die?”

Everything is so complicated and even more difficult than before.

Finally, they pull away, but are quick to come back to each other by pressing their foreheads together. 

“I don’t want to seem overbearing,” Sage whispers. “I don’t want to order you around or nag you either, but I do want you alive because I think the world would be an even sadder place without you in it.”

“I don’t care about the world,” Valentine says plainly. “Would you be sad?”

“Of course I would… What kind of question is that?”

“Just making sure,” he assures, laughing a little bit.

“Well, I don’t care about the world either. You’re better than anything this world could ever think of creating.”

“Sage?”

“I think I’m going to cry.”

“Me too.”

“Crybaby.”

They sit there for a while, holding each other’s hands before Sage lets go to finish dressing Valentine’s wound. His injury keeps breaking open, and it’s no one’s fault but his own. Now, because of his carelessness, Sage is going out of his way to help him.

Guilt pierces his heart like a sword.

“There,” Sage says with a content sigh. “It’s done.”

“Thank you,” Valentine smiles and pulls him closer to kiss his cheek. “For dealing with me.”

“It’s a lot of work,” he admits, making Valentine laugh. “But you’re welcome. Anything for you. Make sure to tell me if you need anything.”

“You’re a saint.”

Sage rolls his eyes. “Hardly.”

“No, definitely.”

“Shut up.”

Valentine chuckles. “I’m stubborn like that. I’m surprised you haven’t given up yet.”

“It just so happens that I’m just as stubborn.”

“I can tell,” he says. “It’s the middle of the night and you’re helping me with something that was my fault.”

Sage pinches Valentine’s cheek. “Stop,” he scolds. “You’re doing it again.”

Valentine pouts and smacks his hand away. “Fine, I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.”

“Sorry.”

“ _Sorry_ ,” Sage mimics before Valentine kisses him again through the occasional giggle.

Suddenly, the flap of their tent rustles, alerting the both of them to move away from each other and reach for some sort of weapon. Sage grabs one of Valentine’s knives while the latter scrambles for a stick on the ground.

Ara peers into the tent, pushing the flap aside with a plate of freshly cut apples in her hands. 

Sage immediately drops the knife and Valentine throws the twig over his head as if he was never holding it in the first place.

The grin on Ara’s face falls when she sees the knife on the floor.

“I didn’t mean to,” Sage blurts. “You scared us.”

“You scared Sage,” Valentine corrects.

Ara pouts and sets the plate down. “Hmph, you’re both scaredy-cats,” she says before turning to Valentine. “Are you feeling better? I heard you were upset… so I climbed a tree to get these for you.”

“Yeah, I’m just fine,” Valentine replies while smiling. “Thank you, angel, they look delicious.”

The grin quickly reappears on Ara’s face. “I made sure to be as careful as I could,” she tells him. “They’re not dirty or have bugs in them. I checked this time.”

A painful memory involving a lot of vomiting flashes through both Valentine and Sage’s heads.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ara asks again as Sage places the fruit in between the three of them. 

Valentine nods. “Of course. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I can’t help it,” she shoots back. 

“Just like your brother.”

Ara’s eyes light up for a few seconds before she narrows them. “Then everyone is like Sage,” she tells him. “You’re acting weird again, like something’s wrong.”

“I know,” Valentine admits. “But I promise I’ll handle it. There’s no need to worry.”

Ara chews on her bottom lip, wondering if Valentine is lying or not.

“He’s going to be fine, Ara,” Sage reassures. “Valentine’s going through a hard time right now.”

“Sometimes, I think of stuff that happened before I met everyone and it makes me sad. It’s hard to be happy when I think about the past,” Ara explains. “Is it like that?”

“Exactly like that,” Valentine answers. “Everything that happened before I met you all is sad to think about, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”

He imagines the look on his brother’s face when he realizes that he isn’t coming back home. He tries to remember his voice, but he can’t and it makes Valentine’s throat close up like he’s choking.

Ara notices—she notices everything—and crawls forward to throw her arms around Valentine, hugging him tightly. “We’ll help you stop thinking about it,” she promises. “We’ll do anything to help you Valentine.”

From the corner of his eye, he notices Sage smiling sadly.

Valentine hugs her back, taking note of Ara’s words. His friends are there to help him, not there to fix him. He thinks back to the man sitting beside him at the bar. The answer to true happiness has always been with him, even before the fire and the stranger and his friends.

He is his own solution and his own person.

Therefore, he is the missing piece to his own puzzle.

“Thank you,” Valentine mumbles and Ara’s grip tightens as Sage looks at them with watery eyes. “I’m here for you all too, no matter what.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading <3


End file.
